Teicher: Croyle gets nod to start Chiefs’ preseason finale

[Tribal Warfare]

Croyle gets nod to start Chiefs’ preseason finale
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

Brodie Croyle will be the starting quarterback when the Chiefs finish their exhibition schedule with Thursday night’s game against the Rams in St. Louis.

The bigger issue is whether Croyle will start the regular-season opener Sept. 13 in Baltimore if the injured Matt Cassel isn’t available. Whether the starter is Croyle or Tyler Thigpen could depend in large part on how each player fares in St. Louis.

“It’s a small piece (of the decision), but all of the pieces are pretty big right now as we get down to the wire,” Chiefs coach Todd Haley said. “Every day is an evaluation. We’ve got to lean on everything we know, and in the next couple of days we’ll learn some more.”

For now, at least, the job is Croyle’s. Haley indicated that how long Croyle plays against the Rams could depend on how well he plays.

So if Croyle has a good showing against the Rams, he not only could win the job for the Baltimore game but also leave little playing time for Thigpen in St. Louis to show his stuff.

“We’ll play it by ear,” Haley said. “We need to get better, and this is their chance to get better.”

The Chiefs have only two offensive touchdowns in their three preseason games. Cassel injured his knee in last weekend’s loss to Seattle and won’t play against the Rams.

“Every time you go out there, you go out there to prove something,” Croyle said. “This is no different.

“Whenever Matt’s back, obviously it’s his team — but we have to fill the void until then.”

If Croyle opens the season for the Chiefs in Baltimore, the moment would mark a dramatic turnaround in his fortunes. He sustained a series of injuries since taking over as the starting quarterback two years ago, and it was reasonable to assume when a season-ending knee injury knocked him out of the lineup last October, his days as a Chief were about to end.

Since then, he even lost his biggest champion when former coach Herm Edwards was fired. But Croyle worked diligently to rehabilitate his surgically repaired knee and impressed the coaches to the point where he’s in the running.

“That’s what you work for,” Croyle said. “You don’t work just to make a paycheck or hope you make a team. If you’re going to rehab from something like that, you have something in mind.”

Croyle’s passing has been sharper than that of Thigpen during training camp and the preseason. In three games, the two players attempted a similar number of passes (Thigpen 29, Croyle 28).

Croyle’s statistics are superior in most categories. He has a better completion percentage and almost twice as many yards. But Thigpen guided a touchdown drive in the second half of a game against Houston; Croyle hasn’t taken the Chiefs to the end zone.

The game will be the first for the Chiefs with Haley calling the offensive plays. He replaced Chan Gailey as the coordinator this week.

“It’s obviously different,” Croyle said. “The pace is different. How the plays are called, kind of the tempo, just kind of getting used to what he thinks. We’re still a long way off on knowing exactly what he’s thinking on different calls. The more you get used to somebody, you can start anticipating what they’re going to call even before. It’s definitely different.

“But there are no excuses. You just go out there and run it. He wants to get up there and get moving, have lots of offensive plays. It makes sense. The more plays you have, the better chance you have of scoring.”

CHIEFS AT RAMS
•WHEN/WHERE: 7 p.m. Thursday in St. Louis

•TV: Channels 2, 5, 13